xenharmonic (microtonal wiki)

A Four-part Round in 17-EDO by Jacob Barton

Why a round?

In my microtonal journeying, I find composing and performing rounds useful in a few ways:

Rounds have a built-in repeat, which means less starting and stopping in the course of rehearsing
Rounds require multiple people or groups, standing on their own in counterpoint, which means every round is yet another opportunity to need your friends
Rounds are "not-yet-music"—they have flexible instrumentation and form, which means more creative decisions to be made by the performing group in the course of rehearsing
Rounds enable adventures in paradoxical listening—multiple instances of a single melody gradually unfold a counterpoint, then a harmony
Rounds enable collaboration between different levels of musicianship.

Why 17?

This round is born of looking at what two systems--17-EDO and Just Intonation--do to each other. 17-EDO becomes a way of looking at Just Intonation, and vice versa. The harmony of this round is based on an understanding of the 6:7:9:11 tetrad (degrees 0-4-10-15 of 17-EDO, measure 1), which I sometimes call the "train whistle" chord.

Fun fact: This round was written as a preliminary exercise for The Elitism Rumba.

Visit SeventeenTheory for information about the notation used below. There are other ways to notate this.